Author: MARIA ULLOA GIGLIO

I found Montaigne’s essays to be a little bit confusing, but after some research, I started to understand him and his ideas a little better. Being that Montaigne’s essay were written during the Renaissance, a time of enlightenment give the essays a whole different meaning. One of the major themes that I saw in the essays was the idea of individualism which was a major component of Renaissance times, where people were expressing themselves more than ever. It is quite unique how Montaigne uses his life and his experiences to fuel the concepts of his essays. Some people may view this thought of individualism to be selfish but in contrary it was a time of self expression and Montaigne motivated and influenced many others including William Shakespeare to find themselves through his writings. A great quote by Montaigne states “I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself” which may seem selfish but undeniably demonstrates his idea of individualism. For Montaigne, he knew that it was important to know about himself and that in order to understand the world around him he would need find who he is. Montaigne’s essays and view of individualism had a significant influence on art and literature through the French Renaissance and for generations to come.

Pizan’s “The Book of the City of Ladies” is definitely way ahead of its time, and can potentially be viewed as one of the earliest forms of feminism. Pizan was deterred by the way in which women were slandered in other pieces of literature, which motivated her to give a different perspective through her literature. It is significant that Pizan does not dispute the claims of the works of men but instead uses her literature to empower women and to demonstrate why women are not like those claims. She uses Lady Reason, Lady Rectitude, and Lady Justice to give examples of powerful women in society such as the Amazons, the virgin Mary and many other examples to further the narrative. Pizan’s book definitely pushed the envelope on the morals and view of society considering it was written in the 14th century, in which these points of view were not very popular in a patriarchal society. No matter the target audience, Pizan was trying to empower women who read her work, determined to show men that the negative stigmatization of women was false and dedicated to change the overall perception of women in society.